struggling. >> americans feel good, so they go out and buy more stuff from china. >> more spending. economic expert has an explanation for that. folks are spending faster than their income is rising. >> we are very stagnant and that is very troubling. >> he says the economy has to grow 3% in order for the jobless rate to come down. the job percent is at 2% growth. families are feeling cautiously optimistic. >> my husband got a job finally. it's been a good christmas for us. >> it took a year and a half for her husband to find a job. five months for janice to find hers in the nursing industry. >> these are some of the luckier families who have pulled through the great recession. >> washington has been taking a bigger slice of a shrinking pie. if you aren't on wall street, living in georgetown or in the silicon valley, the world is a much darker place.

>> just ask gordon from central illinois, y the toy drive was bleak. >> jobs are tough and a lot of people need help for food during the holidays. >> take away. >> america has not forgotten how to grow. americans haven't lost faith in their country. the problem is, the elitists have given up. >> when it comes to sentiments, it's personal. no matter what their situation is, they say the country has a long ways to go in building a stronger economy. in alexandria, surae chin, 9news now. >> if our recession is over, it has come too late for the company that owns sears and k mart. that company announced plans to shut down 120 stores. this following last sales over the holidays. no word on which stores will go dark. >> and that economy will likely be the big issue in next

tuesday's iowa caucuses. candidates are out there, they are criss crossing the state trying to win over the undecided voters. >> thank you. >> steve is ringing up customers and keeping his restaurant running while he tries to figure out who he'll back next tuesday. >> this is going to be a last minute decision for you. >> absolutely. >> the machine shed restaurant in urbandale has been a popular stop. still, many voters aren't sure who they will support. >> whoever convinces me that they will help unemployment, get people back to work and cut government spending. >> i think a lot of it is hard finding out what they truly stand for. there are so many negative ads out there. >> mailers, phone calls, and tv ads, hoping their campaigns can pick up those undecided voters and gain some steam heading into next tuesday. they are also making as many face to face pitches as they

can. newt gingrich, and rick perry kicked off bus tours across the state to win over voters. >> this is an election where you got a choice. and i'm the limited government conservative in this campaign that will give washington a complete overhaul. >> voters in iowa are listening. and candidates have one week to do that before the nation's leadoff caucuses. danielle nottingham, des moines, iowa. >> ron paul will be back on the campaign trail in iowa tomorrow. time to move on. that's why nebraska senator says he's not running for reelection next year. the two-term democrat announced that decision today. republicans need to take four seats from the democrats to take back that house of congress. and congress will have a full plate when it does get back to work next month. the white house said today it will ask lawmakers to raise the

nation's debt limit by $1.2 trillion. that's because the united states will be within $100 billion of its current borrowing authority by friday. both sides agreed to over the summer. congress will reject the request and the president can veto that. the increase will take effect automatically january 14. troops from both world war ii and the gulf war were welcomed home with huge parade. and city leaders in new york and here in d.c. say they would like to host one for the servicemen and women back from iraq. one new york council member says he was told the pentagon is concerned that the ceremony might put the troops still serving overseas in danger. a pentagon spokesman disputes that and he said he heard nothing about that issue and no one submitted a formal proposal. the final combat troops left iraq more than a week ago. more than 91,000 are still serving in afghanistan. tonight, police are looking for the person who shot and

killed a well known local rapper this morning. the white oak section of silver spring. franklin of silver spring was gunned down near the intersection of stewart lane just before 7:00 a.m. he was on his way to work waiting at a bus stop. >> i'm scott broom in white oak where the community has been badly shaken by the shooting death this morning of a local rapper. family and friends of franklin amobe in shock after the shooting this morning. amobe was shot to death at a bus stop on stewart lane. his mother stunned. >> he goes to work every morning. >> my wife came out of the house to get in the car to go to work and she heard a shot. she ran in the house to tell me about it. >> residents are badly shaken. >> you don't hear shooting in the white house. >> investigators scoured this scene, two cars were towed. according to family, one car belonged to the victim whose

girlfriend lives here in the apartment complex. amobe's death caused friends to go to face facebook. >> we can't rule out it was random. >> scott broom, 9news now. >> metro says it wrapped up an inspection of rail cars. no luck, it doesn't know why part of the breaker fell off a car last week. it will keep on looking. it has pulled 16 cars out of service because they have the same brake equipment as the one that went lame. last week's trouble forced hundreds of passengers to evacuate a train and shut down part of the blue and orange lines for hours. >> rain and cold are made for a miserable day out there. the showers are pretty much done for tonight, right? >> doppler is much more quiet right now. all the showers move off to the north and east of us. now what we are left with is a lot of wind.

it will be breezy tonight. here's a look at live doppler. a couple straggler showers way out to the east of us. now doppler radar showing the most of the moisture is up toward philadelphia, new york city, heading up toward massachusetts. we're going to see high pressure settle back in. how much rain do we get? around national, half an inch. hagerstown, maryland, just under .6. and almost .7 of an inch of rain. a good soaker today. mostly cloudy and breezy and yeah, i can feel the windchill tonight. i might need a thicker jacket. lows will get down into the 30s and we're talking about more gusts for tomorrow. worst tomorrow than tonight. we'll talk about that and your new year's forecast coming up when i come back later. thank you anny. coming up, a special event for very special kids. we go inside the locker room at the special holiday hockey classic. but first, the rods of the two homes in the same neighborhood burned just minutes apart.

the arson investigation. we'll tell you about it up next.

a woman in los angeles is urging fellow owners of the honda civic hybrid not to accept a class action settlement. instead, she says fight honda in small claims court. honda is offering owners $100

and $100 rebate for selling hybrids that don't get as much gas mileage as advertised. the owner hopes to win $10,000 in small claims. corporate attorneys are not allowed in. well two garages catch fire at about the same time in the exact same neighborhood and the fire marshal now says it is arson. it happened around 10:30 monday night in urbana. there's $130,000 worth of damage to both garages. two cars were also completely destroyed. the victims say they want the culprits to pay for the damage. >> i hope they feel bad for what they did. i hope they feel remorseful. >> it's not a joke. it's serious stuff. you could have killed people. >> investigators say signs in the neighborhood were also vandalized and part of that investigation. the rain is moving out and sunny skies hopefully moving in. anny will let us know if it will last through the holiday weekend. but first, party pointers.

advice on how you act to make sure you have a job when the holidays are done. that story comes your way next.

the washington, d.c. veteran's affairs medical center and wusa9 salute all who serve at home and abroad this holiday season. what up? i'm from afghanistan. i want to send my family happy

holidays. i miss you all. be home soon. >> do you plan on hanging out with your boss and coworkers for a holiday get together or have you already done it from last week? if you are, we have some pointers for you so you can hang on to your job. you certainly don't want to drink too much. one local recruiter calls one employee who should have also found out that the dress code for his party was not what he thought. >> he was wearing a sweater and he took it off and had a t- shirt underneath that had homer simpson. so there was already problems there. by the time the ceo was finished talking, he introduced himself and said, it's the big cheese. can i call you cheesy for short? that gentleman was fired. >> you aught to go, but if you can't handle a social setting, you should consider staying home. okay, so is it fair for you to be held responsible for what you do away from work? everybody is drinking. everybody is having a good

time. what's wrong with that? shouldn't your boss cut you some slack or if you're in a professional setting and your boss is a professional boss, shouldn't you be on your best behavior? the address is mailbag@wusa9.com. playing a team sport can be intimidating for kids with autism or other sensory disorders. that is unless it's a team only for kids with special needs. today, four such d.c. area teens got together for the first ever holiday hockey classic. >> how many goals are you going to score today? >> about 20. >> lacing up her seven-year- old son in the locker room of the montgomery cheetahs. her 14-year-old also on the team has been diagnosed with high functioning autism. and nico has learning disabilities. everything becomes a teachable moment.

>> which food is this? right or left? >> left. >> i feel like i need skates for six hours. >> today is a special day for all the local special needs hockey teams. we have all the classic, which is the first of hopefully many that we'll have in the future. >> david is head coach for the montgomery cheetah's and he has a special needs son on the team. >> go cheetahs. >> i want many i son to have the same opportunities that i had. the love of the game and all the lessons that come with plague the game of hockey. >> i enjoy to see how proud they feel when they score. >> together we learn how to best teach their kids not only on the ice, but off the ice. >> it's a simple thing. but for a special needs child, passing is sharing. and sometimes that's very hard thing to learn. >> only thing really different about this hockey game is the fact that the score is always tied. these kids are still learning

how to win and lose and still be good sports about it. >> everybody has a bad day. >> playing a team is playing together to be heros. >> in laurel, kristin fisher, 9news now. >> we want to say thanks to carrie for tipping us off to that program. she has a child that plays for the cheetah's. anny. it was just rough out there today. i'm glad it's almost done. >> okay, we're done with the rain, but now comes the wind. and i can feel it. it was cold outside with my coat on. in fact, it was already seeing the blustery conditions kicking in. we have high pressure moving in. wind gusts 25 miles per hour at andrews air force base. 25 also for pax river. 20 in fredericksburg. you factor in the cold temperatures. the windchill already talking about that. 41 in downtown. not so bad if you're in the city. head further out to manassas. it feels like 34. in frederick also. temperatures already feeling like they are close to

freezing. leesburg also 34. out toward the bay and east of town, it's not so bad. but that will change as we see the gusty conditions really pick up over the last 24 hours. here's a look at that storm system that brought the soggy conditions. bringing a will the of lowations. more than a half an inch of rain. it pushed up to the north and east of us. we have high pressure settling back in. temperatures, 45 in arlington. 46 in d.c. 54 in annapolis. and sterling down to 40 degrees. a lot of us will get into the 30s overnight. the rain has ended and looking for a quiet weather pattern for the rest of the week. a coastal flood advisory is in effect. wednesday, windy and cold. chilly thursday, and new year's weekend, a lot of folks hope it will dry. tonight, mostly cloudy and breezy. you're going to seal that windchill. lows in the 30s. west winds 10 to 15 with gusts higher than that. overnight lows upper 30s.

40 for annapolis. 35 in fredericksburg. culpeper 37. when you factor in the gusts, it's going to feel colder than that. tomorrow morning, bundle up the kids, dress them warmly. it will be partly cloudy. temperatures in the 30s. a northwest wind. that's a cold wind. 15 to 25. gusts as to 35 miles per hour. mostly sunny, but it's going to feel cold and chilly with the northwest winds. highs will be 42 to 46 degrees. i think it may feel like the 30s once you factor in the winds. so for cumberland, the forecast high will be 40 for wednesday. 41 in winchester. 43 in leesburg. mid 40s, manassas around 34. in downtown, 42 degrees. gaithersburg lower 40s. annapolis 42. we also do have a small craft advisory for all of wednesday for parts of the day. cold start, 30s, and windy at noon, 36 to 41 degrees with lots of sunshine. here's a look at your seven-day

forecast. a little milder on thursday. mid 40s. friday, near mid 50s. that's going to be mild. saturday for new year's eve, well it looks like we should be dry. a couple disturbances, but at this point, i don't think we'll be impacted by it. i kept off the rain drops. we'll have to see how the models update. look at monday and tuesday, we're going to be much colder. tuesday's high is upper 30s. enjoy friday's mild mid 50s. the weekend not looking too bad for new year's. >> thank you, anny. anybody remember rollerblades? remember 15, 20 years ago you couldn't walk down the street? now where did they go? the answer, to france. where a guy they call roller man has transformed his entire physique into one giant rollerblade. which he uses to torpedo down the sides of mountains, reaching speeds of over 70 miles an hour. this guy's name is john. and this video from youtube.

as you can see, roller man can steer. he goes around corners. he can even brake as well. check him out. he is kicking it on those runs in the olympics. look at this. he is flying. what better place for a roller man to test out his skills when there is no snow on the ground. it's pretty amazing as long as he stays alive. which is a situation you have to figure could change at any second. >> i wonder how many bones he has broken. >> we'll be right back. we want to hear what you think. send your e-mails to mcginty's mail bag. the address, mailbag@wusa9.com. 9news now will be right back.

in the mail bag tonight, the 17-year-old that got sent home for wearing high heels. the man is openly gay, but the school said it was safety, not gender that prompted the action. jones from falls church says whatever the reason, the school was wrong. if that young man wants to wear heels, he has the right. why not make all the girls wear skirts if you are going to pick on males. he has the right to freedom of speech, unless he uses that to harm others. why aren't potential school administrators screened? that last question, joan, is a good one for any number of

reasons. we move on to the wusa9 facebook page. should we be held accountable for posting a picture that ends up being controversial? like a christmas party at work where some folks may have gotten out of hand? deadra says lack of discretion is a real problem. it shows that you lack common sense and it's potentially damaging because it's online and associated with the brand. our company has a social media policy in place to keep that behavior from becoming an issue. no business wants a damaged recruiting or industry image all because someone doesn't have enough sense to know some party picks or posts are inappropriate. and linda explains further why it matters now more than ever. in the old days, nothing stopped people from taking pictures and showing them around. now they can be posted to the world. if you're out in public, you're at fair game. at office and private party is not public. we hope you are never

embarrassed by your e-mails to mcginty's mail bag. you can check out today's mail bag or any day's mail bag on our website, wusa9.com. just click on let's be real. well that is our report. i'll be back here tonight at 11:00 along with anita brikman. we'll see you later. bye bye.

now, "entertainment tonight," the most watched entertainment newsmagazine in the world. arnold and maria back together for christmas. are the whispers of a reconciliation even possible as we look back at their past christmases in happier times. then -- >> we're counting down hollywood's top ten fashionistas. from j. lo's daring decisions to gwyneth's sophistication. >> i'm wearing michael kors. >> angelina, beyonce, rihanna. >> the fashion divas every designer wants to dress. >> having a chanel close set a big plus. >> the hottest stars, their style secret and who is hollywood's number one fashion icon? >> i certainly don't dress like this every time i go out. now, in depth on the biggest entertait